Russia's SWF eyes more tie-ups with Singapore investors

Singapore

ONE could well describe the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) as a sort of sovereign wealth fund (SWF) in reverse.

While many SWFs around the world invest abroad primarily, the raison d'etre of the six-year-old RDIF is to attract foreign capital to invest in Russian projects, with the aim of lowering the risk for foreign funds as they are partnering with the state.

The RDIF has a total of US$40 billion under management - US$10 billion from the Russian government to kick-start the fund in 2011, and the rest from its many joint partnerships that have been committed to date.

RDIF has more than 20 major partnerships, including one with China Investment Corp…